Everyone wants the M3 to distance itself from the regular 3-series, and when they continue to add one of the signature styling cues that was present on the almighty e46 even, some want to delete it?
I will admit it does bother me that it isn't necessary from a functional standpoint, at least it doesn't appear to be. It kind of reminds me of a '98 Cobra I owned for 7 years, with the vents on either side of it.